While I'm not necessarily disagreeing with your statement I think the two examples you chose aren't the best. Plants vs Zombies is 7.99, I think it's normally 4.99 on the iOS App Store? Despite the price difference, PvZ is in the top 20 eShop all releases chart and has almost 14,000 ratings. On iOS it has 17,500 ratings. While I'm not directly relating ratings with sales, on the eShop you need to have played the game for at least one hour before you can return to give it a rating. I'm sure PvZ is quite profitable for Popcap/EA.

Also Angry Birds Trilogy has sold like 500,000 copies on 3DS despite being an order of magnitude more expensive than iOS/Android versions.

Comparing games that have become phenomenons with massive mindshare to a new little game just starting out is rather disingenuous if you just skip right to what their selling strategy is now that they're wildly popular, and skip the part about how they came to be so ubiquitous in the first place. They're Exhibit A for why building an IP through the standard industry practice of starting every game at high prices and working their way down should be rethought and flipped entirely on its head. Countless copies of those games were sold at bottom dollar or given away for free in the course of making those IPs as popular and profitable as they are now.

I think the price point really helped out with that. I got surprised with a 3DS XL for Christmas, but it only came with Mario Kart. I ended up buying Pushmo and 3D Land, and used the extra few bucks to purchase Clive. No regrets there, as I didn't buy the Android version due to a lack of hardware controls.

Too bad Nintendo doesn't allow companies to give actual sales numbers on E-Shop games.
It my understanding that the majority of major 3rd parties don't support it because of that reason.

Why would a company decline support just because they couldn't share digital sales data? If anything, companies usually prefer to be more secretive and usually only share sales figures when they hit impressive milestones.

Comparing games that have become phenomenons with massive mindshare to a new little game just starting out is rather disingenuous if you just skip right to what their selling strategy is now that they're wildly popular, and skip the part about how they came to be so ubiquitous in the first place. They're Exhibit A for why building an IP through the standard industry practice of starting every game at high prices and working their way down should be rethought and flipped entirely on its head. Countless copies of those games were sold at bottom dollar or given away for free in the course of making those IPs as popular and profitable as they are now.

Yeah, the comparison isn't as straight forward in the way it was presented, which wasn't by me. :P

I do believe we're going to see a lot more F2P style of games in the next few years though.

Why would a company decline support just because they couldn't share digital sales data? If anything, companies usually prefer to be more secretive and usually only share sales figures when they hit impressive milestones.

Third parties have stated that they will look at sales of Wii U games and make future decisions based on those sales.

Too bad Nintendo doesn't allow companies to give actual sales numbers on E-Shop games.
It my understanding that the majority of major 3rd parties don't support it because of that reason.

Your understanding is wrong; for the most part. The developers that didn't supported the Wii Shop didn't mostly because of the draconian ways of payments (i.e. needing to sell a specific amount to get paid, otherwise they didn't get any money), that changed with the 3DS and Wii U's eShop. So, a small team that failed to reach that benchmark never get paid at all.

That some devs didnt supported because of that, well..that may've had an effect, but not a deal breaker as others also have the same policy.

Not been able to post sales publicly is something that others do (unless games are a big success). They still receive sales data and even talk to other develpers about it, but you're not supposed to distribute actual sales numbers publicly.

Look at how many use Xbox Live/PSN leaderboards to get an idea of sales or the Steam users logs to see how many people logged/are playing the game.

Wow that's really surprising. Nintendo have really done a good job with the eShop in my opinion, it's not filled with trashy games like DSiWare was but it's not completely barren either. There's at least one interesting new release every week, which gives each game much more spotlight than it would normally get on the overflowing smart phone app stores.

The most interesting fact is that the Android version is top. I thought iOS is supposed to be better for game sales? I know this is one game but still.

It kindof shows just how much power Google and Apple has over what sells in their stores.

It's a somewhat scary thought that if I could somehow get Google to feature the game again, that could very well earn me more money than developing a brand new game would. Of course you still need a game that appeals to people; my previous game, Helium Boy also got featured a while later but didn't get quite the same result, but still a massive sales spike.

While it would certainly be nice to get more promotion from Nintendo; the fact that it's selling as well as it is without much extra visibility in the eShop is very encouraging.

I wonder whether Beril will see another spike in sales thanks to this topic :P

I swear I didn't have any hidden motives behind the thread, but in retrospect it's probably pretty effective PR. People do like sales info and a lot of gaming enthusiasts enjoy hearing positive reports of Nintendo vs Apple, so this thread has spawned quite a few news articles/blog posts/tweets.

Its really a big problem with the App Store on how bloated it is right now. If your app isn't really promoted, its really very difficult to get sales and it will just drown along with other apps. In fact, I only heard about the game when the 3DS version was announced and then checked the App Store. Majority of my purchases on the App Store was also through word of mouth and by searching. While I think its the same with the eShop, I guess fewer competition helped the game. Anyway, congrats. Im one of the few people who believes that its more difficult to turn a profit on App Store compared to other platforms/services. Although Im basing this on a friends experience who actually got approved on the App Store.

I have it on iOS and Android, I bought it mainly to support a gaffer but as it turned out it is pretty awesome! Don't have a 3DS but if you make a version for Windows 8/RT (With support for X360 controller) I'll buy it too. Congratulations =)

I think that Gunman Clive perfectly illustrates how flawed the Greenlight process is. You have some games that will never be approved simply because they can't win a popularity contest. It not even representative of the game quality.

It's a mess.

Is it true what I've read from FarSight (the developers of Pinball Arcade) that it's basically how good your *average* voting rate is rather than total? Because it seems like a load of shit that a game is more likely to get greenlit in it's first week than having another chance again. I'm pretty sure they realise that all the people who vote up to a certain point CAN'T VOTE AGAIN. Idiots.

I just want that game on PC. The fact that it dropped 5 places AFTER 10 just got approved is a load of horseshit.

Anyway, I'm going too far off track. Congrats to beril on creating something a lot of people are enjoying! I had no idea it was on anything other than iOS, so there ya go :)

Is it true what I've read from FarSight (the developers of Pinball Arcade) that it's basically how good your *average* voting rate is rather than total? Because it seems like a load of shit that a game is more likely to get greenlit in it's first week than having another chance again. I'm pretty sure they realise that all the people who vote up to a certain point CAN'T VOTE AGAIN. Idiots.

I just want that game on PC. The fact that it dropped 5 places AFTER 10 just got approved is a load of horseshit.

I think that is the reason Kingdom Rush hasn't been aproved yet, at every day it get less likely =(

I didn't like the game at all so much so i deleted it off my iPod Touch.

It's way too simplistic, from the music, sound effects, platforming, level design, enemies, animations, the way you die to the weapon powerups. The only thing it's got going for it in my opinion is a decent artstyle. Also does bumping into a duck seriously do damage to me?

Not yet. I'm looking into it but I'll have to partner up with a Japanese publisher

Thanks for the reply! There are quite a few games I'd like to pick up, but they don't always come out on the JP 3ds eshop. I only have a JP 3ds.
For example, I'm still hoping VVVVVV releases here, but it's already been quite awhile and still nothing. (I have the pc version, but want the 3ds one.)

Gunman Clive looks like a good one to play on the 3ds and I'd rather play it on the 3ds over something else. Thanks again.

I think the price really is the biggest contributing factor to its success on the eShop--all the other "real" games begin at the $5 pricepoint, more or less, so Gunman Clive has the "impulse purchase bracket" all to itself, at least for the time being.